Histological assessment of cervical lymph nodes provides prognostic information for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) and identifies high risk patients most likely to benefit from surgery plus chemoradiotherapy (CRT)

Methods: HNSCC surgical patients who had tumor resection and neck dissection at our institution from 1980 through 2007 were included in this retrospective study (n=1534). Cases were categorized according to number of positive cervical nodes (no positive nodes (n=719), 1-2 positive nodes (n=459) or 3+ positive nodes (n=351)) and by ECS status as negative (n=1048) or positive (n=415). Differences in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed using KaplanMeier and log-rank tests.